Chapter 4 - THE NURSE WITH NO NAME
Detective Ruiz chased the woman down three flights of stairs.
Rachel heard the pounding footsteps disappear below them.
“Stay here,” Ruiz shouted.
Rachel did not.
She handed Madison to Lorraine, kicked off her heels, and ran after them.
By the time she reached the ambulance bay, the woman was gone.
Ruiz stood beside a security door, furious.
“She had an access badge.”
“Who was she?”
“Not hospital staff. At least not under that face.”
Security footage showed the woman entering through a service corridor twenty minutes before Thomas’s heart rate spiked and heading straight toward the ICU. Ruiz enlarged the image.
Rachel stared.
“I’ve seen her before.”
“Where?”
“At the funeral home.”
The memory hit all at once. A quiet woman near the back. Dark coat. No flowers. No conversation. Rachel had assumed she worked for the funeral director.
Back upstairs, Thomas woke again.
This time he could speak in whispers.
Rachel leaned close.
“Tom, who is Daniel?”
His eyes moved toward her.
“Not… Daniel.”
“What?”
He fought for breath.
“Not him.”
Ruiz stepped closer. “Who hurt you?”
Thomas’s hand twitched.
“Coffee.”
Rachel’s stomach dropped.
“Daniel brought you coffee.”
Thomas blinked hard.
“No.”
“Then who?”
His lips moved.
“Mar—”
The word died beneath a cough.
“Mark?” Rachel asked.
Thomas shook his head.
“Mar…la.”
Ruiz looked at Rachel.
“Do you know a Marla?”
Rachel did.
Marla Voss was Daniel’s fiancée.
And more importantly, she was the chief financial officer of Clarke Development.
Before Rachel could process it, Dr. Whitaker walked in carrying a sealed lab report.
“They found something in Thomas’s blood sample from the night he collapsed.”
Ruiz took it.
“What?”
Whitaker looked sick.
“A paralytic sedative. One that can suppress breathing and make a weak pulse almost impossible to detect.”
Rachel stared at him.
“You’re saying somebody made him look dead?”
Whitaker nodded.
“And if Madison hadn’t climbed into that coffin…”
He didn’t finish.
He didn’t need to.
Then Ruiz’s phone buzzed.
She read the message.
Her face hardened.
“The funeral home security footage from the night Thomas arrived has been erased.”
Rachel looked toward Madison.
The child was staring at the door.
May you like
“Mommy,” she whispered.
“The blue nurse is back.”
